Selling to The New Elite

CHAPTER ONEThe Desire to Acquire

“We can do without any article of luxury we have never had;but when once obtained, it is not in human nature tosurrender it voluntarily.”

—THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON

CHIMPANZEES LIKE PEANUT BUTTER as much as they like frozen juice bars.

That may seem an odd place to begin a book about selling to the affluent. The equivalent preference for two disparate monkey snacks is seemingly far afield from the topic at hand. But in fact, this conclusion about equal primate desires for peanut butter and frozen juice, gleaned from several studies, is actually a useful starting point in understanding a variety of sophisticated human behaviors, including the purchase of luxury products. It turns out that some human behaviors ...